Campus Opinions- Tufts
BOSTON --As the stock market plunges and the credit market tightens, Tufts students are increasingly concerned with more than just broad ideologies.
The weakening economy has affected the ability of students across the country to obtain gainful employment, and members of the Tufts community are beginning to re-evaluate their priorities. Some will defer entering the “real world,” choosing instead to bide their time in graduate school while the perfect storm recedes.
Others will enter with more caution, realizing that, as industries are tightening their belts, new graduates will be among the first to suffer. Consequently, students want a president and an administration that will turn the economy around and reverse some of the ills brought about by government deregulation.
For many here, this election – more so than any other in recent memory – is about the bottom line. But these concerns are not devoid of ideology; in fact, pocketbooks and the ever-present craving for change and increased equality have found a happy intersection in our need-blind admissions policy.
For the last two years, the university has evaluated applications without regard to potential students’ abilities to pay. Tufts has declared its intent to maintain this policy, but it remains unclear how long it can survive in the face of the economic slowdown. Tufts students view this as a fundamental question of equality. The same members of our community who want to elect a candidate who will break down barriers recognize that the economy lowers the glass ceiling and needs to be corrected before meaningful change can occur.
In the short term, Tufts has decided to put all major capital projects on hold. University President Lawrence Bacow described the move as a conscious decision not to push bricks and mortar at the expense of people. Students seem sympathetic to this philosophy, preferring the steady flow of financial aid to a new sports complex. But at the same time, with a better economy, students realize that they can satisfy their ideological as well as practical concerns.
When it comes down to it, Tufts students will likely not cast their ballots based solely on the economy. But for undecided voters, it could certainly push them into one camp or the other.
Boston.com solicited the opinions of six local college newspaper editors on the mood of their campus as the election nears. 